Art History - a Free Interactive Text Book

One of the few classes I really enjoyed at school was art - I was lucky enough to do it all through high school. Didn't mean I was actually good at it but at least I was having a go.

As part of that formal art education we had to study art history and I we had a decent library of Art History at school and even a few good books at home...

Then travelling through Europe and the US for three years I was able to see many of the works in person, from the Louve, Prado, Tate, Metro, to little galleries like the Beaverbrook in Fredricton.


So I was drawn to see the SmartHistory.org website - maybe I just stumbled across it.
It is a fantastic resource. If your like art or even if you don't there is enough in there to en-thrall. Set up like most art history text books it goes through each stage of art and how it influences the way we see the world and how how artists have changed our perceptions of art.

New Free Art Programs

I have always been a fan of free graphics programs from the gimp through to irfanview, so I'm always on the look out for more.

Painting programs

Smoothdraw - Similar to Artrage - it provides natural painting and drawing with interactive tools and effects. - A nice freeware application that is perfect for eBeam or use with your Wacom Tablet

ArtWeaver - Again a natural painting/drawing tool. The interface is more like Corel paint.

Animation Programs

Synfig - Synfig is a powerful, industrial-strength vector-based 2D animation software package, designed from the ground-up for producing feature-film quality animation. Not sure how easy this is to use but I'll download it and give it a bash.

animpixels - Feeling retro. This program helps you create cool isometric art and animations - Sim City style.

K-3D - A 3D modeling and animation tool, again I haven't had a chance to play with it - but it is free!

For these and more try this site http://creativenerds.co.uk/freebies/25-free-must-download-design-programs/